At least 10 die in Plateau clashes

At least 10 people have died in clashes since the
beginning of the week between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and local people in parts of central Nigeria’s Plateau State, officials there said on Thursday.

Clashes have been reported since Sunday in the Bassa, Riyom and Bukuru local government areas, part of an emerging pattern since a major upheaval last year in the state capital, Jos, in which more than 500 people died.

A military spokesman, Lt-Col Ayo Olaniyan, told journalists five people were killed in the first of the incidents in Kwol community. The violence then spread to other communities in nearby local council areas.

"Apart from those killed in Kwol, more than five other people died in the other clashes at Barkin Ladi and Jero," Michael Dogo, an official of the Bukuru local council, told IRIN.

He reported residents of Kwol as saying that the herdsmen attacked them first, setting ablaze the community church and several other houses. Reprisal attacks were subsequently launched by the locals, during which a number of herdsmen were killed and 22 cows slaughtered.

Tension has remained high in Plateau State since September 2001 clashes which pitted the mainly Christian indigenous population against Hausa-speaking Muslims and Fulani herders from farther north. Among the local people there is a strong fear of domination by the politically influential Hausa, while they accuse the herders of grazing on their farmland.